Fraser River Sockeye Fisheries and Fisheries Management - Cohen ...

Annual harvest estimates in U.S. fisheries are in Table 1. The geographic distribution ofCanadian harvests of Fraser sockeye has changed substantially over the past 30 years.Harvests in Area 20 represented 24% of the Canadian catch from 1986-1991 compared toonly 4% since 2001. Harvests of Fraser sockeye in Areas 11-16 have increased from32% to over 60% from pre- to post-1991 periods. The overall ratings for commercialfishery catch estimates were “Fair” for accuracy, “Unknown” for precision and“Medium” for reliability (Table 14). Bijsterveld et al. (2002) and DFO (2009) havedocumented inaccuracies associated with the estimates of sockeye catch from sale slipdata prior to 2004. One of the products from the detailed review of the 1996-2004 catchestimates (DFO 2009) was the replacement of catch estimates for these years with thosederived from non-sale slip systems. Consequently, sale slip data has not been the primarysource of catch estimates for Fraser sockeye since 1995. As indicated above, the limiteddocumentation of catch monitoring methods, few estimates of precision and minimalverification at landing sites leaves substantial room for improvement in most of the catchmonitoring programs for Fraser sockeye fisheries. This is especially true for Canadiancommercial fisheries. Catch estimates for U.S. fisheries are derived from a “Fish Ticket”system that is believed to provide a complete census of the salmon harvested in Alaskanand Washington State commercial fisheries. Details regarding each of these fisheries andthe rationale for our evaluations of catch estimation methods are presented in thefollowing sections.40